Diary

Happy New year to you all from our lovely beachhut on the South coast at Cooden Bay. A place very special to me, somewhere I walked our lovely labrador in all weathers, where the weather was always completely different from inland. Once we crossed the marshes, even in the rain, often the weather was sunny and warm on the beach. There is something very special about the sea air, sea scape, open skies and clean air.

Today, the 1st of October, I am starting my version of Stoptober. A month to eat clean, letting the wine bottle remain corked, and not adding any extra sugar to my diet. I can’t not eat natural sugar this month, the garden’s most productive on the fruit front. But I plan to think even more carefully about what I’m eating in order to rebuild my strength after the last few weeks.

I am taking the lead from a fellow blogger Copper Kettle and just enjoying having a blog. As she shared, a blog isn’t a journalistic masterpiece, there is no duty to hand in work, it is something to be enjoyed and shared. So today I am sharing something personal.

We’re spending a few days in Gloucester, mainly to visit HRH The Prince of Wales’ estate Highgrove. On my list of places to visit is the M5 motorway service station near Gloucester (yes really!) This is a service station with a difference though, and almost worth coming to Gloucestershire just to see it.

On the many train journeys I take up to London from Sussex I’ve snatched glimpses through the trees of the lavender fields. They are so pretty, fields of purple, and I was determined to visit. Having tracked the train route into London I found that we were passing fields that are grown by Castle Farm, the largest lavender farm in the UK. They have been growing lavender since 1998.